ICO 



JOUEN.VL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ August 7, 1873. 



a fertiliser except for light sandy soils, to wbieli it gives more 

 solidity, but it is more remarkable for the great depth to which 

 it extends. Clays of other kinds also abound in places, and 

 all tints of grey are represented ; some clays of this hue are the 

 most useful for cultivated plants. In many instances lime may 

 be advantageously employed in diminishing the adhesive- 

 ness of clay soils and rendering them more productive ; but to 

 the gardener who has a choice of soi's I would not recommend 

 one of a very stiff nature except where long droughts prevail, 

 and scarcely then. 



Let ns now turn to some of those] LiRh dry moorlands of 

 ■which Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the north-western counties, 

 afford such numerous examples, a considerable breadth also 

 occurring in Surrey and on the south coast. There the 

 hilly districts present two or more kinds of soil, to a certain 

 extent differing from each other. The dry, black peaty skin 

 of thickly-rooted matter of heath and fern is often desired for 

 the ijotting-beuch, as Heaths and Azaleas, as well as several 

 other plants seem to luxuriate in such a soil ; but it is not 

 well suited for cultivation, for it is often shallow, with a hard 

 stoney bottom, and on high naked situations deficient in 

 shelter and altogether unsuited tor cultural purposes. Patches 

 of it, however, aie found on a lower level and exhibit great 

 fertility after cultivation, and have less rooty matter amongst 

 the soil than occurs at greater elevations. 



I will not here enumerate the plants which a peaty soil from 

 a dry upland heath is said to suit, but I may remark that for 

 many years it was thought to be the only one in which iihodo- 

 dendrous would succeed, but they have been found to thrive 

 in soils that to outward appearance bear little resemblance to 

 peat, still there are many choice plants for which this is in- 

 dispensable in pots. 



The above dry upland peat must not be confounded with 

 that obtained in the morasses at the base of the liill, which is 

 often pernicious to vegetation — perhaps containing iron, which 

 I;have Imown^to kill Ehoilodendrons ; but such peat, after having 

 been cut for fuel, left for some time exposed to the weather, and 

 then immersed in a manure tank, may often be used with 

 advantage for the same purposes as fibrous peat ; but care 

 ought to be taken how it is used, for it frec^ueutly does much 

 injury. 



Eesembliug in some degree the bog soil just alluded to is 

 that which occurs by the sides of tidal rivers, where large tracts 

 of level land have been overflowed by high tides, rendering the 

 land like bog in colour, but differing from it owing to the 

 water not being impregnated, as in the case of bo^s formed by 

 springs, with the substances through which the water passes 

 before reaching the surface; and in the two eases a different 

 kind of herbage jirevails, so that the same crops can hardly be 

 expected to thrive in each alike. Another distinction often 

 exists. The marsh land by the sides of large rivers, or where 

 the tide has overflowed at some former time, often contains 

 more sand than the inland bog ; and after cultivation for a 

 series of years this sand forms an important element in the 

 composition of the soil, as it exhibits itself in greater abund- 

 ance after the vegetable fibre which once bound the whole into 

 a mass has perished, and some very producti%'e land is often 

 the result. 



Taking next another description of soil— that of a sandy 

 district, where rain helps to make the ground and roads cleaner 

 rather than du'ty by consolidating the sand. Such soils are 

 not unfrequent, and have these advantages, being more espe- 

 cially useful where rain falls often and in great quantity. Of 

 their value for garden purposes little need be said, as much 

 depends on the character of the season. Some crops luxuriate 

 in sand — for instance, Asparagus where it has been liberally 

 assisted with manure ; and it is nowhere cultivated to greater 

 perfection than in some of the sandy plains that border our 

 tidal rivers. In dry sandy districts, again, there is often a soil 

 that will almost blow away with a bri^k wind, but underneath 

 many such tracts there is marl at no great depth below the sur- 

 face, and this can be dug up and spread over the field in suffi- 

 cient quantity to meet the requirements of vegetation. Marl and 

 marl pits are common enough in many places, and they have 

 plaved an imiiortant part in husbandry. 



Perhaps the most fertile of all soils are those formed by the 

 alluvial deposits at the sides of rivers beyond the reach of the 

 tides, and of ordinary fresh-water- floods. Most rivers have a 

 bordering of this kind of land in some part of their course, and 

 on it occur the richest of our pasture and the most productive of 

 our arable land. Tliere the soil is deep, of rich earthy matters, 

 and in all respects capable of supporting vegetation. Land of 



this kind often gives us the earliest and certainly the most 

 abundant crops, and it is well adapted for most vegetables ; 

 Celery, Ehubarb, Lettuce, and even Asparagus, doing remark- 

 ably well. Some of the best market gardens in the kingdom 

 and not a few private ones are placed in such situations ; their 

 great drawback is their liability to suffer from early and late 

 frosts, and in midwinter the frosts are often more severe^ than 

 in more elevated sites. -_».;, 



Flinty gravels occasionally occur in districts where water i& 

 scarce; they are not at all enviable soils, and yet in favourable 

 seasons good crops of corn are often reaped, even when the- 

 stones may be shovelled-up in cartloads aU over the ploughed 

 ground. These stones, be it remembered, are not without^ 

 their uses, and help to keep in what moisture there is in tho 

 laud, and help also to keep it open. It is partly due to the- 

 stones that the soil does not harden into a solid impenetrable 

 mass ; for in many cases where angular or rounded flints 

 abound in such quantities the intervening substance is a much 

 stiffer aud more adhesive material than it is often thought to 

 be. The gardener, at all events, ought not to select a soil of 

 this description, at least not the scalp of such a hill, but the 

 valley may often be better, in consequence of the best soil being 

 washed down by the rains ; but dry hot seasons aSect such 

 lands severely, and in some places the absence of water is a 

 great defect in domestic as well as cultural matters. 



There are many other soils of an intermediate character 

 comprising portions of two or more of those described, while 

 there are some to which it would be difficult to give a definite 

 character ; amongst them are some of the shallow clayey soils 

 resting on a shaley gravel — such soils are not generally pro- 

 ductive. There is also a sterile gravel now and then met with 

 of a bright yellow colour, evidently one of the worst to deal 

 with, and patches of this in a naked condition often occur 

 in waste places without exhibiting a vestige of vegetation, 

 as on some of the moors of Derbyshire and Cannock Chase^ 

 in Staffordshire. Such soils require more time to render 

 them fertile than would pay the cultivator to make them so, 

 and the epithet barren applies to them ; yet they are not 

 absolutely so, for seeds will vegetate iipou them, but they can- 

 not sustain vegetable life for any considerable time. 



Let us now suppose ourselves to be going from London by 

 rail ; we have not to travel far before we see several of the 

 soils previously referred to, and a glance at the character of 

 the crops, coupled, of course, with other considerations, wiH 

 in many instances convey a good idea of what the soil really 

 is. Most of the laud near London may be said to be in au 

 artificial state of cultivation — i.e., it has for many years 

 been so highly manured that the original character of the soil 

 is almost lost sight of ; but farther from town this result can- 

 not so well be accomplished, aud we have there the land in a 

 condition more nearly resembling what it naturally is, and its 

 productiveness may generally be estimated with some exact- 

 ness by the character of the trees and hedges, and even the 

 weeds. Nettles, notwithstanding the hostility most people 

 bear to them, are one of the best indications of good land,, 

 much more so than Fern or Bracken. Crowsfoot is also a 

 sign of good land ; while wild Thyme aud Daisies indicate 

 inferior ground. The Ox-eye Daisy prevails in meadows of 

 retentive soil, where it often blooms in a mass at the end of 

 May or beginning of June in such a manner as to emulate 

 the best-arranged flower garden. The scarlet Poppy in corn- 

 fields indicates a dry soil, while the purple Loosestrife is 

 only seen in wet places, and amongst trees when in a con- 

 dition of nature or nearly so. The Elm selects the best land, 

 aud is there capable of maintaining its supremacy, but on such 

 land the cultivator has often a difficulty to rear the Spruce 

 Fir, and has the mortification to find it often dies or becomes 

 diseased at a very early age. Light land with a rather shallow 

 soil more or less appertaining to peat suits the Scotch Fir 

 best, while a calcareous soil is best fitted for the Beech, but 

 both accommodate themselves to circumt t mces. The Oak is so- 

 often met with in soils of such widely different characters that 

 it is difficult to define that which is best adapted for it. The 

 light upland soils, where it is so often met with in a natural 

 state in connection with Hazel, Birch, Maple, and other trees, 

 is not the place where it attains the largest dimensions, yet 

 every stiff' soil does not suit it ; a certain depth of soil for its 

 roots to penetrate would seem to be necessary, aud the best 

 examples, I beheve, are on rather stiff' soils overlying a mixture 

 of stiff loam and gravel. 



Having extended my remarks to a greater length than was 

 intended, I have only one further observation to make, and 



